Lincoln Silver Dollar Commemrative Purchase Question.

I think that's a great choice. The unc will be more expensive that the proof, but you will find one.
Congrats on a cool purchase!

Not worth the gamble of getting a mint set or Proof and sending it off for grading, small chance of it grading 70.
What's why the 70 grades cost much more $$$...the 69 grade sometimes sell for less than raw coin.

I agree.

I am not interested in the grade. Honestly, I have a difficult time seeing the difference between a 69 and (what most TPGs call) a 70, but that is just me.

Thanks Penny, I actually had purchased one later that night. Still looking for a 2009 Uncirculated (not proof) Lincoln Silver Dollar in Mint Packaging though.

Thanks all!

Glad to hear you got one of them. I also prefer to have the original Mint packaging and not slab them. I personally don't think they are worth the price to buy a 70 graded slab.

They call me a cynic.

I'll agree that it's a big boy's game, but for another reason.

You want to play the 70 game, so you pick out the ten best coins out of a couple ASE rolls. Truth to tell, half the submitted coins are 69/70, so you get back five of each. Costing you $300 at $30 per coin.

APMEX Cherry picks a monster box, and sends in 100 on the bulk rate deal of $3 a coin. They've also looked at a few more coins than you, so they're likely to get 70% right.

End result:

You have five 70 and five 69, APMEX has seventy 70 and thirty 69, for the same certification cost. To start with, they have 14x as many 70 to sell.

Other "slight" advantages they have:

• They bought wholesale, you didn't.
• They're selling retail, you prolly are not
• Your 69s are worth bullion, they have enough to promote through the TV coin sellers or themselves
• They prolly have contract shipping and insurance deals you don't
• They still have outlets (like you) for the stuff they picked over

I definitely agree its a big boys game when it comes to selling.

I will sell some but am not trying to make a living off it by any means. I cherry picked about 15 2012 ASEs, Star Spangled Banner Coins, and the Infantry commems to send in hoping to hit 1 70 of each if not more for my own collection and planned to give a few as gifts anyway, then sell what was left over.

Long story short not a single one hit a 70. Every single one was a 69. I've since gotten my hands on 70s of the 3 coins and a few of my 69s look better than the 70s. I have no doubt in my mind if I was a dealer or someone like APMEX they do a lot of business with several of the 69s would have been 70s but they decided to keep their 70 number lower to drive up the value knowing that me not submitting any more to them is of no concern to them.

I understand why they want to keep the 70 population low, but at the same time if the mints technology gets good enough where every coin is a true 70 then every coin should be graded that way. Needless to say my days of trying to get a graded 70 through my own submissions are over as its quite clear they save those for their valuable accounts

Congrats to your nephew.

I wonder if they are more likely to give out a 70 depending on the submission method. Something like if you use the cheapest 15 dollar method you will never get one but if you use one of the more expensive methods they will hand them out